


Rocky Romance

by madcatm



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amateur Dramatics, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Charlie knows everyone, Dean Being an Asshole, Flirting, Hate to Love, Humor, Insecure Dean, M/M, Mutual Pining, Rocky Horror AU, Slow Burn, artist eileen, director Charlie, musical AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 05:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10915065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madcatm/pseuds/madcatm
Summary: Dean’s best friend Charlie is putting on an amateur dramatic production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and wants Dean to play Brad. Dean does not agree with the idea at all…until he meets who’s playing the lead





	1. A Rocky Start

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dean plays the straight man](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9585251) by [MashiarasDream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MashiarasDream/pseuds/MashiarasDream). 



> Hope you enjoy my crappy writing

Dean wasn’t sure how Charlie planned to talk him into this. He kept telling her that there were loads of guys better for the part than him, but, apparently, he was ‘perfect’ for Brad.

“C’mon, Dean! _Please_.” They were sitting around the table in Charlie's kitchen after Charlie had, deceptively, invited him over for coffee to tell him about the latest show she was directing and producing. What she had neglected to mention, was that she was planning to cast him as one of the leads.

Dean sat back in his chair with his arms folded, “I’m not doing it, Char. You can’t make me,” he stated.

“Please Dean, you’re just _right_ for this. It would be a big help to me,” she batted her eyelashes as she pleaded with him.

Dean still looked unconvinced, “I’m sure you can find someone else, I bet there’s plenty of guys who’d love to do it.”

Charlie saw that she needed to change her negotiating strategy at that point, “You know you’d be great in the part.”

Dean rolled his eyes, “I’m not an actor.”

“Sure, you are!” Charlie exclaimed, “I remember your performance in _Grease_ being awesome!"

Dean chuckled, “That was in _highschool_. And I only had, like, four lines or something.”

Charlie put her elbows on the table and leaned forward, “Yeah, and those four lines were my favourite four lines of the show!” She could see she was beginning to wear him down, “Come on, Benny’s doing it!”

She got up and moved to stand behind Dean and leaned down to put her arms around his neck, “Pleeeeeeese?” Charlie whined.

“ _Benny’s_ an actor,” Dean reminded her.

Charlie scoffed, “So are you!”

Dean sighed, “No, I’m a mechanic,” his smile didn’t match his words though.

Charlie finally relinquished her hold on him and went back to her seat. “Just come to the first cast meeting on Saturday. You could see who you’d be working with and get a feel for the script,” she picked up her mug and took a sip, “If you still don’t think it’s for you after that, I won’t say any more about it.” Charlie replaced the cup on the table and smiled at him encouragingly.

Eventually, Dean unfolded his arms and responded with a smile of his own, “Okay." Charlie's face lit up immediately and went to talk, but Dean held up his hand to stop her, "But, you gotta promise, if I decide to drop out, you won’t be mad?”

Charlie squealed as her grin took over her face. She raised her hand solemnly, “Promise! I swear on Hedwig’s life that I will not be mad at you if you drop out.” Dean couldn’t help but let out a laugh at that.

 

They soon returned to their discussion of Charlie’s plans for the show, minus her bids at persuading Dean to be in it, and by the time he was leaving, Dean was actually feeling a kind of excited at the prospect of doing the show.

However, he quickly had insecurities creeping in as he thought it over on his way home. By the time he got back, he was certain; after the cast meet he’d just gently tell Charlie that it just wasn’t his thing. She could easily find someone better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fanfic, and a WIP; I'm planning to update every other Monday. I have no idea how long this is going to end up as, so settle in for a long ride. kudos and comments are appreciated, but don't just be plain rude. Rating may change. Tags will be added as I think of them


	2. Let's Rock and Roll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First rehaersal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I redid some of this chapter (see: most of) and added a new bit at the beginning. Thanks to @impulse_baker for the help on descriptions. Hope you like it.

On Saturday Dean met Charlie at her apartment to drive them to the theater. She greeted him with a cheerful smile as she climbed into the impala's passenger seat.

"Hi Brad," Charlie said with a grin. Dean rolled his eyes at her. He felt like he was doing that a lot at the moment, especially when dealing with a particular red head.

"Hey, you agreed, so even if it's just for today- you're Brad," Charlie said, raising her eyebrows at him, daring him to retaliate.

He didn't, instead turning his gaze back to the road and starting the car. "So, where's this theater at?" Dean said as he pulled onto the road.

Charlie frowned. "Oh come on Dean, you know I'm just kidding around. I'm really grateful for you giving this a chance." Charlie reached over and gave Dean's shoulder a squeeze. Dean took a hand of the wheel to pat hers and turned his head briefly to smile at her.

"Yeah yeah, you me owe. Seriously though, I don't know where I'm going here," Dean said, chuckling slightly.

"Oh! Right, yeah...uhh," Charlie looked out the window to see what street they were now on, "about two streets that way," she pointed out of the windscreen, "then take a right." They drove in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Charlie spoke up again.

"You know, this place is really awesome, you're gonna love it. Seriously, I got such a great deal on it."

Dean looked over at her and smirked. "Yeah? How'd _you_ manage that then?" he said. Charlie gasped and gave him a light shove.

"You dare doubt me, sir?!" Dean tipped his head back slightly and laughed.

Charlie grinned back. "No, seriously, I managed to knock down the owner on the price by like, $70!" Dean pursed his lips and nodded in agreement.

"Nice. How _did_ you do it anyway?" Dean looked skeptically over at her and noticed her meticulously examining her fingernails, "Charlie…?"

 _Dean's_ tone turned reproachful. "I _may_ have said it was for charity," Charlie said carefully. Dean gaped at her.

“What the hell Charlie?!” It was a good thing they’d pulled up at the theatre by then, because if he’d still been driving he might have gone onto the sidewalk.

“What? I _am_ going to give some of the money from the ticket sales to charity.” Dean raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged a shoulder.

Charlie looked up at the theatre and turned to him again. “C’mon, Brad. We’ve got stuff to set up,” she hefted up her rucksack from the footwell and opened the door of the impala and stepped out. Dean shook his head with a smile and quickly followed her.

As they entered, Dean was beginning to feel nerves about meeting the other members of the cast. _Not that he was going to be part of the cast as well._

The theater was only an average sized place, for a theater anyway, but it appeared to have a real setup, and it looked like Charlie really had gotten a good deal. She took him through the stage entrance and backstage area which lead onto the stage. The auditorium had the lights out, with only a couple of the lights on over the stage, giving the room a kinda eerie look. Charlie walked over to where there were a few stacks of chairs in the wings.

“Everyone else should be here in about half an hour,” she looked up at the clock on the wall and shrugged, “ish. We just need to put out a few chairs and get some drinks. There's a couple people who should be bringing the snacks.”

Dean went over to the stack and started setting out the chairs on the stage. “So, how many of these we gonna need?”

“About twelve or thirteen? It’s all the main cast, including us, and then a couple of the stage crew…” she paused to mentally count, “Maybe fifteen actually," she picked up one of the chairs and moved it to the middle of the stage, "we can always get a few more out if we need to though.” They spent the next twenty minutes or so putting out the chairs and setting up a table for the drinks and food until the first few people started arriving.

They were just finishing up when Dean suddenly noticed a familiar figure step onto the stage.

“Sam?!"

The long-haired giant looked up at the sound of his name. “Dean? Hey man!” Sam’s face split into a grin as he walked over to his brother and pulled him into a brief hug, “What are you doing here?”

Dean’s eyebrows raised towards his hairline. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” Dean said, pointing at his moose of a brother.

Sam’s brows furrowed. “Charlie called me, asked if I was interested. It sounded like fun, so…” Sam shrugged as his sentence trailed off. Dean turned around and surveyed the stage before his eyes landed on the redhead in question talking to a pretty brunette.

“Hey Charlie!” he yelled across the stage. She turned at the sound of his shout, as did most of the others, before spotting Sam. A nervous smile spread over her face as she made her way over to them.

“Hi Sam, glad to see you could make it,” Charlie chuckled, somewhat anxiously, in the face of Dean’s glare.

“Charlie, why didn’t you tell me Sam was doing the show too?” Dean asked.

Charlie grinned apologetically. “Surprise?” Dean fixed her with a bitchface to rival Sam.

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Oh come on Dean, you’re both great at acting and it’s not like it’ll be a problem you both being in it.” Dean huffed and folded his arms over his chest whilst Sam, who had been watching their conversation with amusement, finally decided to chip in.

“So, you’re gonna be in the show as well? Who’re you playing?”

“I’m not-,” Dean started, but Charlie cut him off with, “He’s playing Brad.” Dean rolled his eyes at her before addressing Sam.

“I haven’t said yes to it yet.”

Sam laughed quietly. “Whatever you say, man. But for the record, I think you’d be pretty good as Brad.”

Dean ducked his head and smiled bashfully before turning back to his brother. “Yeah, yeah, bitch," he said. Then a new thought occurred to him, "Who’re you playing anyway?”

“Jerk,” Sam retorted, then he looked down and blushed slightly, and Dean’s curiosity was peaked, “Um…, Rocky actually,” Sam chuckled a little self-consciously.

There was a beat of silence, then Dean doubled over laughing.

Charlie smiled as the mood lifted around them. “Well, I’ve gotta go organize the rest of this lot, so I’ll catch up with you guys after,” she turned and walked back to where a few of the cast were already gathered.

Dean eventually came to the end of his laughing fit while Sam’s face was fixed in patented bitchface #5. “Thanks man, real supportive,” he grumbled.

Dean wiped the tears from his eyes and sighed. “Dude, you so can’t be mad at me for laughing at that.”

Then the sound of Charlie’s voice caught their attention. “Alright everyone, let’s get this show on the road. Pun intended.” A few people laughed at the joke while others groaned as they all moved to sit in the circle of chairs in the middle of the stage.

As they all sat down, Dean between Sam and the brunette he’d seen Charlie talking to earlier, Dean’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the man sitting beside Charlie.

His dark, tousled hair was a mess standing out against his pale skin with a slight stubble shading his sharp jawline. Dean could see the way his muscles stood out under his white shirt making the buttons and fabric strain when he moved.

Even as far away from him as he was, Dean could see his eyes were a startling shade of sky blue.

He was stunning.

                                                                                                                  ******

Charlie smiled round at the group.

“Hey everyone, thanks for coming. As you know, we’re going to be working towards performing _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ at Christmas, so we only have a few months to get everything done. Today we’re gonna go through who’s who and introduce people. Some of you already know each other, but a few of you are new,” Charlie paused to smile at a couple of people individually, “So, I’ll be announcing characters, then we’ll read through of a couple of scenes.”

Charlie leaned down and pulled a binder out of her bag and opened it.

“Alright bitches, first of all: The Criminologist and our narrator is Gabriel over here,” Charlie gestured to a man with sandy blonde hair sitting on the other side of the blue-eyed beauty. _Focus Dean_. Gabriel smirked and gave the room a little wave.

Charlie spent the next few minutes handing out parts until it got to Brad. “Brad is currently undecided, but for today, Dean will be reading for the part,” Charlie nodded towards where he was sitting before continuing, “And last, but not least, our leading man, Frank n Furter, is to be played by Castiel,” Charlie put her arm around Castiel and gave him a one-armed hug.

Castiel smiled around at everyone, and his eyes seemed to rest on Dean as he said, “I hope I live up to the role.” _Fuck_ , his voice sounded like he gargled gravel.

 

Charlie handed out copies of the first couple of scenes to everyone. “Okay, so we’ll try the scene with Brad and Janet in the car first. Gabriel, Dean, Meg, you guys ready?”

Dean took a breath and nodded at her, as did the pale brunette, and Gabriel said, “Yep.” Charlie grinned.

“Gabriel, can you go from just after ‘On a night out’?”

Gabriel nodded and lifted the script to read as he fixed the rest of the group with a smirk. “‘It was going to be a night they would remember for a very. Long. Time.’”

“Very dramatic, Gabriel,” Castile murmured. Gabriel smiled back mischievously at Castiel.

“Well, I do try.” Charlie sighed.

“Guys, can we keep the comments til the end of the scene please?” Gabriel mimed zipping his mouth shut.

“Meg…?” Charlie prompted. Meg began reading in a high, simpering voice.

“'Gosh. That’s the third motorcyclist that’s passed us. They certainly take their lives in their hands. What with the weather and all.'”

Dean took a breath as he realized the rest of the circle was watching him. “'Yes, Janet. Life’s pretty cheap for that type.'”

 

The reading of the rest of the scene went fairly smoothly, until after they skipped the song and continued to the next scene where Brad and Janet got to the castle. Balthazar, the guy playing Riff Raff, tried to do creepy, but just ended up leaving everyone giggling.

“Alright, someone else can try to do better,” Balthazar huffed in a smarmy, irritated tone.

Charlie tried to look apologetic, but she was suppressing a smile. “Sorry Bal, it just needs a bit of work is all.” Balthazar still looked annoyed, but appeared to be somewhat placated by Charlie’s words.

At that point, Charlie thought it would be a good idea for all of them to take a short break, to which everyone agreed. A few people stood to go to the table set up with snacks and drinks as the hum of conversations broke out.

Sam turned in his seat towards Dean and clapped him on the shoulder. “Dude, that was really good!” Dean rolled his eyes, unconvinced.

“Sure.”

Sam gave him a light shove. “I’m serious. You’re right for this part, Dean.”

Dean felt himself blush slightly. “Yeah, well…” he planned to tell him he’s not going to do the show, that he’s dropping out. He was, but at that moment, he looked over and saw Castiel standing talking to Charlie. He had a glass of apple juice in his hand, and Dean couldn’t help noticing the way Castiel’s throat contracted as he took a sip.

His train of thought was somewhat derailed by fantasies at this point, when Sam’s voice brought his attention back to their conversation.

“Dean?”

Dean shook himself out of his daydream. “Yeah, sorry. Just thinking.”

Sam looked skeptical, but didn’t comment further. “Well, as I was saying, you’d be good as Brad. So, maybe at least think about doing it.” At that, Sam got up and headed over to the snacks table with the other actors. Dean mumbled a, “Yeah, sure,” even though he knew Sam wouldn’t hear him.

He decided to stay where he was until the break ended and just flip through the few other pages of the script he had. However, a moment later Benny dropped into the seat next to him.

“Hey, brotha’,” said Benny, smiling.

“Hey,” Dean replied before grinning and raising an eyebrow, “So, Eddie?”

Benny chuckled. “Yeah, should be fun, that. You did good as Brad by the way, man.”

Dean huffed a laugh. “You and Sam should form some kind of club.” Benny looked confused and seemed to want to ask more, but Charlie interrupted by announcing that the break was over.

 

They ran through another couple of scenes, from both earlier and later in the musical, and by the time they had finished, it was about time for everyone to be leaving. Charlie thanked them all for coming and asked if they could be there for two hours next week. Some people left fairly quickly, but a few stuck around to help tidy up.

One of those people being Castiel.

They were just about done putting away the chairs when Castiel decided to start up a conversation with him.

“It’s a pity we didn’t get to any of our scenes today.”

It took Dean a moment to respond, surprised again by the other man’s rough voice. “Uh, yeah, it’s a shame.”

Castiel smiled. “I hope we have time to get to them next week,” he then looked directly into Dean’s eyes, “I look forward to acting opposite you, Dean.”

Dean thought he liked the way his name sounded coming from the other man’s lips. He held Dean’s gaze a moment longer, and as Dean’s eyes flicked down after a moment he caught sight of Castiel’s tongue darting out to wet his lips. Dean couldn’t help mirroring the gesture.

Then suddenly he was gone and Dean was watching him walk towards the door.

Dean swallowed heavily and waited to hear the sound of the stage door open and close before scanning the stage for Charlie. He spotted her collecting the last of the plastic cups and walked briskly over to where she was standing.

“I’ll do it,” he said. Charlie just ginned back at him, looking both smug and excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More people will be popping up in the next few chapters. Comments aand kudos are welcomed


	3. Rock on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm drawing on my experience of being in a drama group for some of this. Thanks for reading

On Sunday, Dean decided to pay Bobby a visit.

Now, it wasn’t like he didn’t see the ill-tempered old man often, especially with Dean working at Singer Auto. Lately though, Bobby had taken more of a desk job in the business, working on the books, with Dean handling most the day to day. Still, they hadn’t just sat down for a beer together in a while, so Dean thought a friendly visit was probably about due.

Dean was greeted with a comment from Bobby about him never stopping by to visit an old man before stepping to the side and letting him into the house. It was about an hour or so later into the evening when the conversation took an unexpected turn.

“How’s that show of yours goin’ by the way?” Bobby asked casually.

Dean managed to stop himself from doing a spit take. “How do you know about that?” he asked incredulously.

Bobby’s face scrunched slightly in confusion. “What do you mean ‘how do I know about it?’ Charlie’s got me building some of the props and scenery.”

Dean groaned as he ran one of his hands down his face. “Is she trying to get _everyone_ I know involved in this thing?”

Bobby scoffed and smiled. “Don’t be overdramatic, boy. It doesn’t suit you.”

Dean took a swig of his beer. “So, what stuff has she got you doing anyway?” he asked, making a mental note to remind Charlie to actually tell him these things.

Bobby shrugged. “Nothing too fancy, couple of weird chairs and tables mostly. And this strange tank thing.”

Dean couldn’t help but laugh at that. “That’ll be Rocky’s tank. Sam has to bust out of it and run around the stage in gold hot pants.” Dean sniggered as he took another gulp of his beer.

Bobby continued to stare at him with a stunned expression for a few moments before deciding to respond. “What kind of show is this, boy?”

Dean guffawed with laughter and leaned back against the sofa cushions.

                                                                                      *****

When Dean got home later that night, he decided to give Charlie a call.

Her chirpy voice sounded after two rings.  _“Dean! Hey! What’s up?”_

“Hey Charlie, I’ve just been to see Bobby,” he said, smiling faintly to himself.

There was a slight pause before Charlie responded, _“Oh. Cool. How is he?”_

“Yeah, he’s good thanks. You’ll never guess what he told me though.” Dean smirked as he heard a longer pause from Charlie before he heard the sound of a small voice come through the receiver.

_“Crap.”_

Dean suppressed a laugh. “Yeah, turns out he’s doing the props and scenery for the show.”

 _“Dean, I’m really sorry. I should have told you. Or I should have asked you first. Or-”_ Charlie’s voice sounded genuinely apologetic, so he decided to put her out of her misery.

“It's okay Charles. I’m not mad. I’m kinda just wondering exactly how many of my friends and family you’ve roped into this thing,” Dean said, chuckling for a moment until he noticed Charlie’s silence on the other end and his tone turned sterner, “Charlie, there isn’t anyone else I know doing something in this, is there?”

Charlie seemed to consider how best to reply without angering him further, _“…well, like, Jo and Ellen are on costumes,”_ Dean groaned as Charlie hastily continued, _“But that’s all! I swear!”_

Dean closed his eyes and tipped his head back with a hand over his eyes, all previous teasing forgotten.

 _“Dean? You still there? You haven’t fainted or something, have you?”_ Charlie’s concerned voice echoed out of the phone.

Dean took another few minutes before answering quietly, “Jo’s never gonna let me live this down.”   

 

*****

The week seemed to drag until the next rehearsal. On Monday Dean went into work as normal and had to deal with a grouchy customer who seemed to think they were an expert at what was wrong with their car, despite not even knowing what his fan belt was. Tuesday wasn’t much different, minus the lower stupidity level in grouchy customers. On Wednesday, he decided to buy a new type of coffee because everyone needs a change once in a while.Sam called him on Thursday and told him about a girl he’d hit it off with. Friday seemed to last the longest.

Charlie was taking her car to the rehearsal this week seeing as ‘he didn’t need someone to hold his hand’ this time, and he remembered the way to the theatre easily enough. He decided to get there about the same time he knew everyone else would, but maybe a couple of minutes early.

He noticed Charlie’s car in the lot as he parked his Baby and made his way to the entrance. He ran his fingers through his hair and took a breath before opening the door.

As he walked through the back hallway, he could hear the sound of a piano coming from the stage area. Not just a piano, he soon realized, but singing as well. The melodic sound of a deep male voice singing the last verses of _Going Home_ filtered through the backstage area. As he reached the wings of the stage he could finally see who the voice belonged to.

Castiel was standing next to an old wooden piano that looked to have been dragged onto the stage from the wings on the other side, as one of the guys from last week, Garth Dean remembered, played the ancient keys.

Dean paused on the edge of the stage as he listened to the end of the song. Once the final notes finished, he was surprised by the sound of clapping from the auditorium. He peeked around the wing to see Charlie seated in the front row grinning, and clapping enthusiastically. Castiel laughed and took a small bow as Garth joined in with the applause. Dean took a few quiet steps back before making his entrance loud enough to announce his presence.

“Dean!” Charlie waved at him from her place in the audience.

Dean chuckled. “Hey Charles. I haven’t missed anything, have I?”

Charlie shook her head. “Nope, I just had Cas get here early so we could go over some of his stuff before the others got here.”

“Ah, shame I missed it,” Dean said with a lopsided smile.

Cas smirked. “Yes, it’s a pity.” He held Dean’s gaze for a moment until Dean felt his face beginning to flush and turned back to Charlie and clapped his hands together.

“So, what we got today, Spielberg?”

 

                                                                            ******

The rehearsal was getting into full swing when Benny ambled up to where Dean was standing and clapped him on the back, “Glad to see ya decided to stick around, brother.”

Dean laughed at his friend. “Yeah, well, guess you could say I had a change of heart,” Dean said as he looked over at where just about everyone else was gathered on the stage with a small smile on his face.

Benny grinned and nudged him in the side with his elbow. “Someone caught your eye, eh?”

 

Dean had come out to his family as bisexual a few years previously, and was only out to a couple of select friends otherwise. Those friends being Charlie, Ellen, and Jo.

He’d told Charlie shortly after he’d figured it out for himself at the end of highschool, and Jo and Ellen were as good as family anyway. They'd all taken it well and been really supportive of him (Charlie had threatened to throw him a party).

Well, all except maybe his dad. The guy hadn't been exactly thrilled, but it wasn’t like they were super close to begin with, so it hadn’t made too much of a difference.

He and Benny had been friends for a few years since Benny worked at Singer Auto for a few months while he was in college. He hadn’t really had any serious relationships in that time, with guys or girls – Aaron and him had only lasted a couple of dates, so he didn’t count that one. Neither did the one night stands – and it wasn’t like he went around telling everyone his sexuality. He didn’t think Benny knew, but the guy wasn’t an idiot, so he couldn’t be sure.

Still, he wasn’t planning on telling _anyone_ about his current attraction to a particular cast member.

“Don’t try and fool me, Dean. Both you an’ I know not a lot changes your mind when it’s set save for a pretty face,” Benny raised an eyebrow, “tell me I’m wrong?”  

Dean scoffed. “I’m just helping out a friend, Benny. There’s no big ulterior motive.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Benny replied with a smirk.

 

After that, Charlie herded them all together to introduce them to Bess, their choreographer. The small woman had seemed sweet - up until they started the warm-up and she turned into a drill sergeant.

Five minutes of exercise later had Dean leaning over with his hands braced on his knees working on getting breaths out. “I thought – this – was supposed to be – acting!” Dean gasped between pants.

“C’mon Dean,” Charlie chirped from where she was stretching beside him, “it’s a musical, that means you gotta put a bit of effort into it. And you don’t want to pull something.”

Dean looked up at her with a pinched brow. “What are you doing this for anyway? You’re the director.”

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t good for you. And I like dancing. I’m shit at sport, and I don’t exactly have the most active career, so this is how I stay looking as amazing as I do.” Charlie flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and grinned down at him.

They’d taken a break for a couple of minutes before they started learning the actual routine, and Dean was beginning to regret the choice to come back. No matter how hot his co-star was.

Said co-star seemed to be having virtually no difficulty with the vigorous warm-up, easily doing a last couple of stretches while talking casually with Meg. Irrationally, the sight caused Dean to feel a spark of jealousy.

It was then that Garth bounded over with a grin on his face, “Hey guys! So what do you think of Bess then?”

Dean opened his mouth to reply with a snarky comment, but Charlie stopped him with an elbow to his side and said, “Garth is Bess’ boyfriend.”

Dean’s eyebrows raised incredulously as he looked over at the pretty blonde and back to Garth. “She’s… intense,” he said slowly.

Garth laughed. “Yeah,” he paused to gaze over at her with a sigh, “I sure love her.”

Dean smiled at the other man’s obvious adoration. “Well, she seems like a great gal,” Dean leaned in then and spoke conspiratorially and spoke in a quiet voice, “do you know what stuff she’s got lined up for us?”

Garth shook his head and shrugged. “Nope, I’m not allowed to know the secrets.”

“Okay everyone!” Bess’ voice grabbed their attention once again, “We’re gonna get started on the first routine. It’s going to be a simple one that you probably all know, _Time Warp._ You probably all know how easy the main part of that is. _”_

 

She organized them all to stand spread out around the stage and got those playing the main characters to stand to the side as she went through the main section of the routine with the others. Dean was relieved to get a continued break, but all to quickly it was their turn to learn their parts. Thankfully, their part was mostly uncomplicated.

Balthazar, as Riff Raff, opens the door for them, does his bit running around them, then the woman playing Magenta, Lisa, pops up at the back of the stage and joins him. He and Meg mostly just get dragged around the stage for the length of the dance.

Dean could see Castiel watching from where he was still stood to the side, as his character didn’t appear until the next song, and it was somewhat distracting. With that being the case, it was probably good Dean didn’t have anything too complicated to do in this one. Getting everyone to learn the routine took up just about the rest of the time, with a couple short breaks in between for drinks.

 

As they were packing up, Dean caught sight of Sam talking with a pretty brunette that he didn’t remember seeing during the rest of the rehearsal…and from the way his brother was leaning towards her, Dean was fairly sure he was attempting to flirt.

Dean briefly considered going to interrupt, but decided to just tease the kid later to make up for it. Once he noticed the girl walk away, he determined to go over.

“So,” Dean grinned mischievously, “who was that?”

“Shut up,” Sam grumbled.

Dean laughed and nudged him in the side. “Oh come on, I’m just screwing with you,” Dean paused as a thought occurred to him, “Wait, is that the girl you were talking about the other day?”

Dean watched as Sam’s cheeks tinged with pink and he chuckled nervously. “Uh, yeah actually. She is,” Sam replied as he reached up a hand to rub the back of his neck.

“You gonna ask her out sometime?”

Sam scoffed, “What are you, twelve?” Dean opened his mouth to respond, but Sam cut him off with a raised hand, “And no, I’m not going to ask her out. Not yet anyway. We’ve only know each other a week.”

Dean gave an indignant huff. “So?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “So, not everyone takes relationships at the same pace as you, Dean,” Sam teased. He patted his older brother on the shoulder then picked up his bag and began to make his way towards the door. As Dean watched his brother leave, he couldn’t help but think how wrong Sam was.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hope this turned out okay. I'm hoping to make the next update, but seeing as my method of writing is 'get an idea, write stuff' and at the moment I have slightly less ideas, I dunno. Also, I recently started putting effort into my school work for the first time in several months, so that's taken up some more time. Comments and criticism is always welcome (and probably needed)


	4. Rock the Boat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I updated! Yay me! Hope you enjoy :) (maybe play 'how many times can you find the word 'coffee' in the first part of the chapter') also, I kind of only typed this out today and couldn't be bothered to beta it before posting, so if you notice any mistakes, let me know.

 After Saturday’s rehearsal Dean decided he was in desperate need of a trip to the gym since he had nearly passed out from doing a simple dance warm-up and had still been aching the next day. As he discovered, he was a lot more out of shape than he thought.

 By the time he got back to his apartment after the gym experience on Monday, he just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for about a year. So, thanks to him trying to be healthy, Tuesday was a nightmare any time he had any heavy lifting to do, which is kind of inconvenient when you work in a garage. By the end of the day he just wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and sleep for about a year. Sadly, however, that wasn’t possible due to his scheduled monthly coffee date with Charlie.

 They usually tried to meet for coffee at least once a month, sometimes at each other’s apartments, but generally at their local coffee shop as it was close to both their homes.

 As soon as he reached the table she was seated at, the red head was prompt to comment on his haggard state.

“Wow! You look like shit.”

“Thanks for that observation, Sherlock,” Dean groaned when he felt his muscles protesting as he gently lowered himself into his seat opposite her, “It’s your fault, with your stupid musical, and your stupidly energetic choreographer with her stupid work out.” He leaned forward with a sigh and rested his forehead against the table.

“How is this my fault? Your foray into dancing was days ago?” Charlie put her hand out to run her fingers through the short hair on the back of his head.

Dean couldn’t be bothered to lift his head to respond, “I went to the gym yesterday. After Saturday, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck…I wanted to be in better shape for next time…” Dean grumbled petulantly into the table.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you only exercise twice a year,” Charlie laughed.

Dean raised his head to glare at her, “I do more than that…”

Charlie shook her head. “You really don’t, dude,” she stood up from the table then, “I was waiting for you, to order. Whadda ya want?”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. “Something with caffeine in? I dunno, you choose. And don’t forget the pie.”

Once Charlie stepped away to join the que for the counter, Dean replaced his head on the table. It hadn’t been like he’d over done it at the gym! Well… at least he hadn’t thought he was at the time. He used to be in great shape! He won his school’s wrestling tournament twice for crying out loud! He doesn’t know where he went wrong.

Okay, it could have been when he stopped exercising regularly and generally preferred to sit on his ass watching Dr.Sexy than go for a run.  

Dean felt Charlie set down a tray and retake her seat. He pulled his head up to see a mug and a piece of pie in front of him.

“You’re awesome,” he said, smiling gratefully up at his friend.

Charlie grinned. “I know.”

 They sat in companionable silence for a moment drinking their coffee until Dean broke it.

“So how’s life as a computer genius going?”

Charlie shrugged. “Same old, same old. Roman’s been on my back about the new firewall, but I should have it finished by, like, tomorrow, and I can go back to my usual routine.”

“Of doing nothing?” Dean said with a raised eyebrow.

 Charlie gasped and pointed at him. “I’ll have you know I do plenty! My plans for our next LARPing event have taken a lot of my time and are going really well.”

Dean chuckled at her and lifted his fork to take a bite of his pie. He moaned blissfully around his fork causing the people at the next table to shoot them odd looks.

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Dude? Can you maybe _not_ do that?”

“Shut up,” Dean grumbled around his next mouthful. He decided to switch the subject before she started up on table manners or something. “How’s show planning coming anyway?”

Charlie perked up at the mention of her production. “Good, I Think. I’ve got a friend working on the scenery, and it seems to be going really well!” She pulled out her phone and focused on the screen for a moment before turning the screen showing a picture of a half-painted backdrop of a gaudy old-fashioned room to face Dean. He looked back up at Charlie and nodded approvingly.

“Looks good, right?” Charlie grinned, “Eileen only started on it, like, a week ago, but she’s good at getting shit done.”

Dean laughed.

“Hey, have you learnt any of your lines yet?” Charlie said with a smirk.

“Nope.”

“Thought so.”

                                                                                                  *****

By the time Saturday rolled around again, Dean felt like he was starting to get into the spirit of things for the musical. He’d been talking to Sam the night before about what Charlie had said at their coffee meet – which then led to Sam informing him that Eileen was the cute brunette he’d seen him talking to last week. Sam also told him about some of the plans Charlie had for Rocky that had Dean laughing himself to sleep.

He got to the theater slightly earlier again ( _not because he was hoping to hear Castiel’s singing again, that was just what time he got there_ ). He greeted the few people he knew, or was becoming friends with, as he entered the theatre before they were being put to work by Bess.

They did a quick warm up, which Dean was pleased to not be left wheezing at the end of, then Bess was clapping her hands to get their attention once again.

“Okay people, we’re going to have to work a bit faster than last week if we want to learn the routines in time. We’re going to review _Time Warp,_ then move onto _Sweet Transvestite_ seeing as it’s another important one and it also comes straight after _Time Warp,”_ she moved to the front of the stage to where there was an ipod hooked up to a speaker, “Places please!”

 The routine went off mostly without a hitch, as much as it could with everyone forgetting at least a couple moves. They ran through it a couple more times before Bess deemed them ready to try the next dance.

Bess called Castiel to the back of the stage for the start of his section of the dance then directed the rest of them to their positions, which were mostly just where they ended up at the end of _Time Warp._ Dean and Meg were standing in front of where Castiel enters.

The small woman eventually made her way back to where Dean was standing awkwardly next to his co-stars.

“Okay, Castiel, we’re going to have you step out of the back here, then walk through to the middle.” She took Castiel’s arm and led him to where most of the cast were positioned center stage. 

Dean was only half paying attention to the moves Bess was showing Cas to copy, when suddenly he was receiving a shove from Meg and he registered Bess beckoning them.

They were once again pushed and pulled different ways as they continued the dance, and Dean couldn’t help but watch Castiel and the way the gorgeous man moved easily around the stage with the simple steps, flanked at times by Balthazar, Lisa and Ruby.

They took a break after practicing for close to an hour to have a drink with Bess threatening to try the whole routine with the music afterwards. Dean walked over to the refreshments table and poured himself a glass of orange juice in a plastic cup. He took a moment to wonder how environmentally friendly that was, and thanks to that, got distracted enough that he didn’t notice the appearance of somebody behind him until he’d turned and collided with them, spilling his drink all over them.

“Oh fuck! Sorry, dude.” Dean looked up and realized he’d managed to cover Castiel’s white shirt with orange juice.

Said man was looking back at Dean with a particularly stormy expression that caused Dean to take a small step back.

Castiel sighed before growling out, “Can you maybe _try_ to watch where you’re going.”

Dean raised his hands placatingly. “Hey, man, I said sorry. It was an accident, alright.”

Castiel continued to glare murderously at him until Meg appeared at his side and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “C’mon Clarence, there’s some spare shirts backstage.”

Castiel shook off the remaining drops of orange juice clinging to his skin and stalked past Dean, knocking into his shoulder as he did so. Meg followed close behind him, stepping sharply on Dean’s foot as she passed, leaving Dean feeling angry and confused.

Charlie, who seemed to have noticed their little altercation, showed up next to him a moment later. “What was that?” Charlie raised her eyebrows questioningly and gave his shoulder a shove.

“I don’t know! I accidentally spilled my drink on him and he freaked out!”

“Dean! Don’t piss off your co-stars! It’s like rule number one.”

“I didn’t _do_ anything,” Dean protested.

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Can you just, sort it out please?”

Dean spread his hands out questioningly. “I said sorry. What more do you want me to do?”

Charlie just looked at him like the answer was obvious, then turned and left him still feeling confused.

 

A few minutes later Castiel and Meg were back, Castiel having changed into a plain black t-shirt, which seemed to be worse than the other shirt at not being distracting.

Bess lived up to her threats and they did go through the routine to the music. He thought it mostly went well…

He could feel that Castiel was still annoyed with him from the way he was towards him during the parts of the dance where they were in close contact, leaving Dean feeling slightly breathless. He had to say he had conflicted feelings about the rehearsal coming to an end.

He made his way outside after bidding everyone else goodbye and slid behind the wheel of the impala. Just as he was about to start the engine, he felt the car jerk and the sound of metal hitting metal reach his ears. He spun round to look out the rear window to see another car had hit him. He leaped out of the door just as the driver of the did the same.

Castiel looked back at him with a shocked expression adorning his face.

Dean felt his anger flare as the other man made no move to do anything. “What the fuck, man!”

Castiel continued to stare as Dean made his way forward to look at the damage done to his Baby and finding a deep dent next to the tail light. Dean’s mouth gaped as he ran his hand over the dip in the metal.

“You did that on purpose!” he suddenly snarled at the other man.

Castiel’s shocked expression turned indignant. “I did no such thing!”

“You wanted to get back at me for earlier! Admit it!” A small part of Dean felt like he was overreacting, but his anger was overpowering that small part.

Castiel’s expression was turning stormy again as his eyes narrowed into a glare. “I’ll have you know I am not a man who would hold a grudge over such a petty disagreement. Seeing as you would come to that conclusion, I could guess you are not the same.”

Dean’s eyebrows raised incredulously. “You saying I’m _petty?”_ Dean spat the word at him.

“Well, the fact you would presume it of me points toward that conclusion.”

Dean glared back as they stood facing off against each other. “Ya know what? Fuck you. Just move your stupid car so I can leave.” Dean turned back and began to stalk towards the top of his car.

“It’s not stupid!” Castiel yelled at his back, and Dean just raised his middle finger at him without looking back.

As Dean climbed back into the driver’s seat he heard Castiel grumble and the sound of footsteps receding as he slammed his door and waited for the sound of the other car’s engine. He saw the other car move forward and away from his in his rear-view mirror. Once it was out of the way, he sharply reversed out of the space and spun round to face the exit. The sound of his horn blared loudly at the old continental remaining in the parking lot.

As he began to drive back to his apartment, it occurred to him that Charlie was probably going to kill him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'll probably be able to keep up on the updates. Turns out, even if I leave it til the last minute, I like updating on time. The plot appeared to me partially last week, and a friend helped me figure out how to put it in place, so you'll be glad to hear this is actually going somewhere. Comments and kudos still wanted, and thank you for reading


	5. Rock and a Hard Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apologies and trust falls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have excuses! I was in my own show, three nights following two days of 4-5 hour rehearsals, then I was getting stuff done for school finishing for the summer. Sorry though. Hope this is worth the wait

Dean woke up the next morning to find twelve texts and two missed calls from Charlie about his “little pow-wow” with Castiel. She claimed to have several eye witness accounts from other members of the cast that she’d questioned after Sam had alerted her to the argument, _traitor._

“I told you to fix it, Dean, not make it _worse.”_

“Hey! He was the one who dented _my_ car!” Dean shot back petulantly.

Charlie sighed down the phone. “He didn’t do it on purpose, dude.”

“As far as you know…” he mumbled.

“Urgh…” Dean could practically feel Charlie’s eyeroll over the phone. “Can you just, like apologize or something?”

“Woah wait! Why do _I_ have to apologize? _He_ hit _me!”_

“ _Accidentally,”_ Charlie corrected. When Dean didn’t respond to her comment, she continued, “Look, can you just try to come up with a half decent apology by next rehearsal? Can you do that please? And that’s half _decent_ not half assed.” Dean grumbled something unintelligible over the line. “Don’t get sulky on me, dude.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “I don’t get sulky…”

“You so do!” Charlie laughed. “I bet you’re pouting right now.”

Dean schooled his face into a different expression, not that he was pouting before though. “Am not.”

“Dude, I know you are so don’t deny it.” Dean made a small sound of disagreement, but Charlie just continued over him, “Can you just stop acting like a pre-schooler and apologize to Cas on Saturday?”

Dean knew she wouldn’t give it up, and it was easier to just admit defeat. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Great!” He could hear the smile in her voice as she said goodbye, “Catch you later, Dean.”

“See ya, Red.”

Dean hung up the phone with a sigh. Now that call was done, there was the job of calling his snitch of a little brother.

“Why’d you rat me out to Charlie?” Dean said in greeting when Sam answered.

“And hello to you too, Dean,” Sam sighed.

“Sammy, I got in an argument with a random guy, and you _told on me. To Charlie._ ”

Dean could practically see the bitchface Sam was sporting.

“Dean, I didn’t tell on you. I told Charlie because the random guy you pissed off is your co-star. Who you kind of have to at least pretend to like,” Dean scoffed, “so I thought I’d give Charlie a heads up in case one of you decided to drop out or something stupid like that.”

Dean paused at that and mumbled, “I wouldn’t drop out…”

“You sounded pretty angry, man. I didn’t know how you were gonna react. You know what you’re like.” Sam added as an afterthought.

Dean scowled at the empty room. “Thanks Sam.”

“You know what I mean-”

“Yeah, yeah. Fine. Ugh, first Charlie, now you. Does everyone seem to think they know me better than myself?” Dean sighed before adding, “You still owe me a drink and a piece of that awesome pie Ellen makes next time we go to the Roadhouse though.”

Sam chuckled. “Sure, man. See you at the next rehearsal then?”

Dean smiled. “Yeah, see you then, bitch.”

“Jerk.”

Dean ended the call and slipped his phone into his back pocket. So. He had to come up with an apology for the guy that dented his Baby by next Saturday.

“Sure,” Dean scoffed.

                                                                                                  *****

“Singing!” Charlie announced from her place beside the piano. “A musical needs singing. So, if you’d all grab a chair and gather round.” She waved towards the stack of chairs at the side of the stage and everyone moved to retrieve one for themselves. Once they’d all been seated, Charlie handed round copies of the songs.

“We’re gonna try to do a couple of song that need everyone, then while the rest of you are left to the mercy of Bess, we’ll be going over some of the solos.”

Dean felt his mouth go dry at the mention of solos. He considered himself a half decent singer, but that was only singing along to tapes in Baby and the occasional karaoke night with the guys. He looked over to see some of the other cast members reading through the lyrics in front of them, and decided to do the same and flipped through the pages in his hands. He only had the group numbers, so he guessed Charlie would give him his songs when they got to practicing the solos. He tried to remember how many songs Brad had solos in.

Garth took his seat at the piano and began to play the first few notes of _Time Warp,_ but Charlie also had a track with the singers on to practice with until they could sing only with the backing track alone. She separated them by voice types, soprano to bass; Dean didn’t really know what he counted as, so he let Charlie usher him into the same group as Sam.

Garth played them their notes and Dean tried his best to sing along with the others. He could hear Sam and Benny on either side of him, as well as the familiar deep voice a bit farther away.

He thankfully hadn’t run into Castiel before Charlie had started their practice, which had nothing to do with the fact he was only just on time to rehearsal. He’d come up with several apologies over the last few days, each of which had been shot down by Charlie. Her response to one such try - “sorry you didn’t see my fucking car” - had been to simply hang up the phone. What more did she want from him? The guy put a _dent_ in _Baby._

 

They went through _Time Warp,_ which took a lot longer than Dean expected - he never knew harmonies were so complicated - but by the end of it he felt like he was getting at least most of the notes right.  Then Charlie split their group up with Meg, Castiel, Sam, Ruby, Garth, Balthazar, and Dean staying at the piano while the rest went with Bess to practice on the middle of the stage. Dean could honestly say he’d prefer the latter option.

The all moved their chairs closer to the piano so they formed a small semicircle next to it with Dean trying to place as many of the other cast between him and Castiel. Charlie passed out copies of _Rose Tint my World_ and then moved to stand beside Garth at the piano and grinned.

“Okay bitches, for those of you not as familiar with this stuff, we usually handle the hardest songs first, and this is our hardest one,” she said, holding up a song book opened to the page. “It has three parts and we’re gonna work through them in order just cos that’s easiest. This is also the only song that all of you have solos in as well, so it’s kinda tricky.”

Dean looked down to the lyrics to find where he came in. He’d seen the movie a couple of years ago, but he couldn’t remember much of the details about it. That kind of music wasn’t really his thing – even if he had quite enjoyed it at the time, but he wasn’t planning on admitting to that any time soon. He was relieved to see he didn’t start the song, but that feeling didn’t last long as he saw he had the third solo – and also what his lyrics were.

He swallowed heavily as he read the part he had to sing in front of both his brother and friend as well as several relative strangers. He mentally sighed and closed his eyes. _This should be fun._

                                                                                          *****

After around an hour - longer than their usual time singing, but Charlie was right and it had been a bit of an effort – they stopped for their usual break. Dean felt like he had managed to keep pretty in tune for his solo, even if he had paused twice to internally cringe – and externally cringe a little bit. However, his discomfort had been slightly lessened by the fact of Sam having far more embarrassing stuff to sing than him. They’d spent a while on the harmonies, which…sounded pretty alright by the end, Dean thought. He’d also enjoyed hearing Cas sing. The guy might be a dumb asshole, but he was a dumb asshole that could sing.

He stayed sitting for a moment after the others stood up to go mingle with the rest of the cast and looked over the songs he was holding. He’d kind of forgotten that he would actually have to sing in this thing. Well, maybe less forgot, more shoved it into the back of his mind to deal with later.

As he was still gathering his thoughts, he felt Charlie drop into the seat next to him.

“So…you planning on apologizing to Cas now? Seeing as you helpfully weren’t early enough to before,” Charlie said snarkily.

Dean groaned. “Yeah yeah. Fine. It still wasn’t my fault though.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, dude,” she patted his arm consolingly and stood, “Can you just help me keep my show together please?”

Dean reached up and squeezed her hand before standing too. “I promise I won’t wreck your show, Charles.”

Charlie smiled. “That’s all I ask.”

Dean watched her walk away as he thought of the best version of his apology that didn’t get Charlie hunting him down later. Not that he really wanted to cause her that extra stress now anyway though. Dean sighed and looked over the little crowd next to the snack table for Castiel’s figure and spotted him standing with Meg a little away from the group. Perfect, he wanted the least audience possible for this.

Dean tapped Castiel on the shoulder and could see wariness take over his features as soon as he turned around.

Dean cleared his throat stiffly. “I-uh, I just wanted to say sorry for last week…”

Meg scoffed slightly from beside Castiel. “Sorry for…?”

Castiel sighed. “Meg-”

Meg put up a hand to silence him. “Now now, Clarence. I’d like to know what _exactly_ it is he’s sorry for,” she said smiling innocently.

Dean gritted his teeth and willed himself to not say what he wanted here. “I’m sorry yelled at you cos you hit my car.”

Meg looked back expectantly. “And…?”

Dean was about to retort with something a little less polite when Castiel stepped in. “Meg, enough. Dean, I accept your apology. I would also like to apologise for causing damage to your car.”

Dean gave Castiel a tight smile and a small nod of acknowledgement and turned to walk to the snack table. He heard Meg scoff from behind him, but tried to ignore her and instead made a beeline for the plate of Charlie’s homemade cookies.

 

Once their break finished, Charlie stood on a chair to talk to all of them. “Alright, how about we try something a little different now?”

Meg, who was standing closest to her, raised an eyebrow questioningly. “What sort of something different?”

“Trust games!” Charlie said with a grin as a few of the other cast groaned. “Oh come on! Trust games are good. And you guys need to trust each other when you’re on stage. Someone screws up, you need to have their back, and you need to know they’ve got yours.”

There are a few shrugs and murmurs from people as Charlie separated them up. They were doing the classic trust fall, so she was trying to make sure everyone was paired equally so both could catch the other without getting injured. Mostly everyone got a partner, with a couple of people left standing off to the side to have a turn after.

Unfortunately for Dean, Castiel was the only other guy left equal enough to him that was there as Sam and Benny had already been put together. Dean also thought it was partly Charlie’s doing trying to make sure they were getting along with each other again. For the second time that afternoon, he sighed resignedly and made his way over to Cas.

After some brief negotiations, Dean moved to stand in front of Castiel to take the first fall. He crossed his arms over his chest, took a deep breath, and let himself drop…

A second later he felt the floor connect with his back, followed by harsh pain.

“Fuck,” Dean groaned from the floor. He could see the concerned faces of Charlie and Sam appear in his field of vision, as well as the looming figure of Castiel a little way behind him. He glared back towards the other man as Sam reached down to help him up.

Once Dean was standing he rounded on Castiel. “You did that on purpose!” he snapped.

Castiel’s eyes narrowed before Charlie decided to jump in.

“I’m sure he didn’t, Dean. Calm down.”

Dean only continued to scowl at Castiel until the man coolly responded.

“I apologize for dropping you. I assure you it wasn’t intentional.”

“ _See,_ he said he was sorry. Now can we please get back to what we were doing before?” Charlie desperately tried to coax.

Castiel turned to face her. “Of course, Charlie. Sorry for the interruption.” Dean also nodded tensely and gave Charlie a placating smile. She sighed as everyone else dispersed back to their pairs.

Dean went back to glaring at his partner until Castiel sighed and decided to break the silence. “I am sorry for dropping you.”

Dean grumbled a “Yeah, whatever” then went to stand where Castiel had been a few minutes ago. He watched the other get into position in front of him when Dean thought he’d get a little revenge of his own. It was juvenile and not exactly complicated, but he knew it would be satisfying as hell.

He saw Castiel start to fall towards his outstretched arms and took a small step back. He heard the resounding thud of Castiel hitting the floor and smirked.

Yeah, he was right about it being satisfying.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I currently have more time to write as I am off school, am mostly ignoring my homework, and don't have enough friends to be busy with plans. I also have a few ideas for once regarding this story, so there might be a few more updates a bit sooner than usual. Always a lover of comments and kudos


	6. Rock Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas' POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeey, guess what? I've been bored and wanted to make up for missing updates, so here's another chapter ;)  
> Here is the song Cas sings. (Not sure if the link works, probably not as I'm still figuring out these things, but you know'll what the song is when it gets there and you can google it) I'm taking ideas from the movie in regards to dance routines, so you should be able to get an idea of what is happening in this if you watch it, as I've mostly copied it.

As he hit the ground he heard a small but distinct chuckle come from behind him. The ache in his shoulders hit him a moment later as, once again, other cast members moved towards them.

Amongst the other voices he heard Charlie mutter, “Oh for fucks sake-” then the redhead was next to him along with Meg and Garth helping him up.

“You okay, Cas?” Garth questioned as soon as he was upright.

“Yes, I’m fine, Garth. Thank you.” He looked over to where he knew Dean was standing and caught the small smirk before Dean quickly schooled his face into something more concerned.

“Yeah, you sure you’re okay, Cas? You hit the floor kinda hard,” Dean asked innocently.

Castiel tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at him. “No harder than I’m sure you did Dean.”

Dean smiled apologetically. “Well, hey, sorry for dropping you, man. Guess I got distracted.” Castiel only hummed in response.

Charlie then piped up again from next to them. “So…are you guys, like, okay?”

“I think so,” Dean smiled. “Cas?”

Castiel nodded. “Yes, I think we are okay, thank you, Charlie.”

Charlie looked back and forth between them for a moment until she finally seemed to decide it was fine to leave them along.

“Okay,” she said, drawing out the ‘ay’. “Well, as long as you’re both good, how about you guys go take a sit down for a minute while everyone else finishes up?”

They both agreed and Charlie left them to go back to the others. Once she was a good distance away, Castiel looked back to where Dean was standing, only to find him watching him with a smirk.

He turned and took several steps so he was just outside Dean’s space. Surprise flashed across Dean’s features for a moment before he went back to just looking smug. They determinedly stared each other down for a few moments until Dean broke the silence.

“Sorry about dropping you, it wasn’t intentional,” he said with a condescending smile, throwing Castiel’s words back at him.

Castiel fixed him with another steely glare. “My patience can only be tested so far, Dean,” he said with his voice as low and menacing as he could make it. “I would appreciate you at least _attempting_ to cooperate, seeing as we’re both in this show.”

Dean shrugged his lips and raised his eyebrows. “Cas, man, I’m not doing anything as far as I can tell.”

Castiel tilted his head at him. “Fine.” He moved to walk away, but turned around again after a hesitation. He smiled condescendingly with a single eyebrow raised at Dean. “But Dean? Please don’t consider this a victory on your part.” With that, he walked away to where he’d left his things earlier.

He pulled out a bottle of water leaned against the wall and sighed. Last week, when things with Dean seemed to go fairly downhill, he’s been somewhat stressed. On Sunday, it had been his mother’s birthday, which meant that every member of his incredibly difficult family that could be gotten hold of had gathered at their family house for a fancy party of some sort. He’d been dreading dealing with…well, his mother for one. He made a point of not visiting home particularly often if he could help it, except for this yearly occasion and sometimes his own birthday.

Naomi had always been quite taxing to be around, hence why he had left home at the earliest possible time to move in with Gabriel who had done the same. Gabriel, however, had done so by simply found himself the cheapest apartment available instead of having a friendly relative to help him. Gabriel chose to not go to these family occasions himself, saying he couldn’t be bothered to pretend to like anyone there.

Castiel had been dreading the party all week, so when it finally got to Saturday, he’d been just about stressed out of his mind. His relationship with his family had been rocky at best, and when he’d come out at sixteen, almost anything remaining had disintegrated. They still liked having him at the usual gatherings, even if he wasn’t sure whether it was to simply save face or to try and convince him to be straight. He still went though. He didn’t particularly like his family, but he didn’t hate them, and he still held out some feeble hope that one day they’d eventually accept him.

The arguments with Dean had been thanks to his own carelessness really. He hadn’t been concentrating when he pulled out of the parking lot, and subsequently hit Dean. He’d felt terrible about it, but his nerves strung tight as they were, at the time he’d just got pissed off. Talking to Meg though, she’d helped convince him that it wasn’t solely his fault - at least not the argument. She provided an outside perspective on the situation saying Dean would probably have rubbed anyone but a saint up the wrong way.

The party, of course, had been a disaster. His mother had tried to set him up with the daughter of a friend of hers. She’d been a lovely young woman by the name of Hannah, but he had no attraction to her. He’d tried to let her down as gently as he could, explaining he had no part in the little blind date and that she had no part in him not wishing to date her. He left early after his Uncle Zachariah insulted Gabriel and he’d had to withhold from punching the man. He’d already seen his brother Jimmy and his wife Amelia and told them to give Claire his love – she was another that didn’t particularly like participating in family gatherings. He met with Meg afterwards and they camped out at his apartment with a few bottles of Jack Daniels until he blacked out.

He doesn’t really know where he went wrong with Dean. When he met him at the first practice he was thrilled to find out he was the one to be playing Brad, with those beautiful green eyes and gorgeous curved lips he couldn’t wait to kiss. He was even considering asking him out after a couple of weeks if he seemed like he’d be interested.

Then he found out Dean was possibly the most unreasonable person he’s ever met outside his family. Castiel had tried to extend an olive branch, which Dean appeared to only take after direction from Charlie. Then there was the whole trust fall fiasco. He sighed aloud as he thought of everything that had gone wrong. Castiel really had not meant to drop Dean, but he’d been distracted by Meg on the side-lines mouthing something at him. He was trying to figure it out, when suddenly he’d managed to let Dean fall to the floor and now Dean was convinced he was out to get him or something.

The petty revenge of doing the same back to him was idiotic and stubborn. Was Castiel so terrible at being sincere that the other man decided to take out a _vendetta_ against him?

Castiel looked up from his musings to find Meg had ambled over to lean against the wall next to him.

“How you doing, Clarence?”

“I really am fine, Meg. But thank you for your concern,” Castiel replied with a grateful smile.

Meg smirked. “Well, at least you took my advice,” she shrugged, “even if it didn’t go all that great for you.”

Castiel turned to her with a puzzled expression. “What advice?”

She looked back at him like she was trying to figure out if he was serious. “That you should let him drop? See if you could knock a bit of that ego out of him,” she finished with a smug smile.

“ _That’s_ what you were saying? Meg, first of all, when have you ever known me to have the ability to read lips?” Meg only shrugged, “And secondly I didn’t do it on purpose. You were distracting me, that was all.”

She only continued to look at him questioningly, “You so sure, Clarence?”

Castiel let his head fall back against the wall. “Is there some kind of gossip going around that I hate Dean?”

Meg laughed quietly. “You should have seen you two last week. I thought punches were going to start flying for a second.” Her smile turned more comforting as she tilted her head to look at him. “Not a lot of people have seen you actually angry, Clarence. _I_ know why you were a bit pissy, but not everyone else does. So yeah, there’s a bit of that going around.”

Castiel sighed. “Well I don’t hate him. I just think he’s a bit self-focused and childish.”

“Ha, I’d probably have to agree with you there. Urgh, I can’t believe we both have to kiss him. I mean, he probably isn’t a bad kisser, but I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of getting this,” she said gesturing to both herself and Castiel.

Castiel chuckled. “The life of an actor I am afraid, Meg.”

 

They stayed were they were for another few minutes, just watching the remaining proceedings until Charlie was calling them back over.

“Okay, well, I guess that went…not as good as it could have been, but some of you guys liked it, right?” Charlie asked cautiously. Most of them nodded and Charlie let a pleased smile slip back over her features.

“OK, right. We’ve only got like, a half-hour left, how about we do _Time Warp,_ then go straight into _Sweet Transvestite_?” They all moved towards their places for the start of the song and Charlie went to where the stereo was setup.

Castiel had practiced _Sweet Transvestite_ a few weeks before when Charlie had asked him to come to rehearsal a little earlier to practice his songs. She’d said he had done it great, but he knew he could do it better. Which Castiel would try to do today.

He wasn’t in _Time Warp,_ so whilst the others were doing that, Castiel took his place at the back of the stage where he would enter for _Sweet Transvestite._ He smiled as he watched Lisa and Balthazar doing their best to be creepy, guiding Dean and Meg around the stage. Meg was doing an excellent job acting scared, and he even had to begrudgingly admit that Dean was playing his role well too.

The rest of the cast did well remembering their routine, singing along with the track rather well. The song finished, and Castiel watched Meg and Dean say their few lines as he readied himself to step forward. This would be the first time he was actually performing the song in front of people, and as he could hear the last couple lines being uttered that signalled his entrance, Castiel decided he would go all out. He’d show what he could do – and maybe have a bit of fun with Dean in the process.

Castiel heard his music cue and strode forward confidently to stand close behind Dean and Meg as Meg, as Janet, screamed and collapsed against Dean.

“ _How’d you do I-,”_ Castiel leaned in close to Dean with one hand braced lightly on Dean’s shoulder so their faces were only centimetres apart, _“see you’ve met my, faithful, handyman.”_

Castiel watched Dean’s throat work as he swallowed and smirked at the thought that his plan was working. _“He’s just a little brought down, cause when you knocked, he thought you were the,”_ Castiel paused to lick his lips and saw Dean’s eyes follow the movement, _“candyman.”_

He let go of the hold he had on Dean’s shoulder and internally grinned as Dean lurched slightly. Castiel made his way across the stage to where Charlie had placed the chair that would act as his throne for the day. Castiel smiled as he continued to sing.

 _“Don’t get strung out, by the way look. Don’t judge a book by its cover,”_ Castiel had reached the point he was supposed to stop and spun round, _“I’m not much of a man by the light of day, but by night I’m a hell of a lover.”_ Castiel caught Dean’s eye and winked.

He continued to sing as he moved around the stage in the way they’d blocked out, Meg and Dean appearing behind him to say their lines. Dean couldn’t manage to remember much of his lines for this part, but the music was loud enough to cover that and he just vaguely copied the track until Castiel was spinning around to continue singing. He gave Dean and Meg a slight shove back as he sang, pushing against Dean’s chest slightly harder than Meg and waltzed back to his “throne”, now with Ruby, Lisa, and Balthazar flanking him.

Castiel sat back in the chair and slung his legs over one of the arms.

_“Why don’t you stay for the night?”_

_“Night,”_ Balthazar echoed from a crouch on Castiel’s right.

_“Maybe a bite?”_

_“Bite,”_ Ruby echoed from her stance on his left.

 _“I could show you my favourite obsession.”_ Castiel grinned devilishly as he continued to sing with his gaze almost solely fixed on Dean.

The song carried on until he was stalking past Dean and Meg again, stroking a hand across both their faces individually as he passed. Castiel reached the point he had entered and sang the last lines.

He finished his performance breathing heavily, gaze once again drawn to Dean’s for a few moments until Charlie’s frantic clapping broke out from the front of the stage.

“That was _amazing_ guys! We still need to work on polishing it up a bit, but for a first time it was fantastic!” Charlie’s face was beaming with a grin that seemed to split a face from almost ear to ear. Everyone appeared to be pleased with it too as Charlie walked into the midst of the group to give different people pointers. Castiel quietly stood at the back, contemplating if he should bother going to get a drink or just wait until the end of rehearsal when Meg glided into his space.

“Well Clarence, I never would have thought you had that in you. And Dean certainly didn’t,” she said with a very definite smirk.

Castiel ducked his head slightly and smiled, he wasn’t sure if he’d overdone it a little bit with…everything.

Meg seemed to notice his reaction and jumped to reassure him. “Hey, that was awesome. And what was even better was seeing that dumbass lost for words. Did you see that blush?” Meg tilted her head back and laughed.

That caught his attention. “Did he really blush?” Castiel questioned curiously.

“Clarence, I understand you can be a bit obtuse at times, but even you had to see how red he went after that little move at the end?” She put her hand up to replicate the touch across his cheek.

Castiel smiled and tried to remember. He thought he had noticed a bit of red tinting Dean’s face at a few points, but he hadn’t had chance to stop and check. He felt pleased that his idea had worked so well.

Just then, Charlie chose that moment to make an appearance with her notes on their performance.

“Cas, that was so good, dude! Keep that up on all the songs and you’ll do amazing on the night.”

Castiel smiled bashfully at the praise, “Thank you, Charlie.”

The redhead then turned to Meg. “You did great too, Meg. But could you try to be a little more couple-y with Dean? It didn’t look a whole lot like you were in love from where I was, is all. I know it’s still early in rehearsals, but you know how fast they go by, and suddenly it’s show night and…” Charlie stopped as she realised she was rambling. “Just, yeah, you know.”

Meg gave Charlie a brief smile. “It’s fine, Charlie, don’t worry about it.”

Charlie’s shoulders seemed to relax slightly and she shot Meg a grateful smile. “Thanks. Keep up that good work guys!” She gave them a thumbs up and moved on to the next group of chattering actors.

Meg groaned quietly. “Any suggestions how to act more couple-y with _him_?”

Castiel chuckled and nudged Meg with his shoulder. “You will do fine, Meg. You and I both know you’ve worked with worse guys than Dean.” Meg scoffed but offered no further argument.

 

It took a little while for Charlie to go around everyone she needed to, and by the time she did it was about time for everyone to leave.

“Thank you all for the great practice!” Charlie was back to her place at the front of the stage to address them all. “Please keep going over your lines, and I’ll see you losers next week.” She gave them finger guns and winked before going to start the usual clean up.

Castiel spotted Dean standing with Garth and Sam on one side of the stage as he was leaving and paused. He kept his gaze on Dean until he looked over and he noticed him staring. Castiel didn’t avert his eyes though, but instead levelled the other man with a look, smirked and raised an eyebrow. Dean’s eyes narrowed slightly in response and he tilted his head back enough to jut his chin out. As Castiel winked and turned to leave he realized what he’d started. The game was on.    

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't put all the lyrics of the song in, as I thought that might be a bit boring to read, so let me know if that was a good amount of lyrics, or more or less would be better. Fyi, there aren't going to be a lot of Cas chapters, mostly because I prefer/find it easier to write Dean and I also want the story and pov mostly focused on him. Please let me know what you thought (I'm a slut for comments and kudos)


	7. Smash it with a rock

I stopped writing this for a while but I am back to it now. I also realized a lot of what I already had wasn't that great imo, so I am rewriting virtually all of it, and in the process changing some elements of the plot (especially as I now actually have planned a plot). It will turn out quite different, but contain a few of the same bits. I am also actually going to write all of it this time before I start posting.

Also, if anyone would be willing to do some beta -ing on it I would be so grateful as rewriting stuff so much is a little muddling at times, and I also just want to write it better. My tumblr is madcatm. Thank you to all who kudosed, commented, subscribed and bookmarked as this was my first fic so it was incredibly appreciated! :)


End file.
